Splice bar



Patented July 28, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT oer-ice- WOODINGS, OF OAIKONT, PmSYLVAN IA,ASSIGNOR TO WOQDINGS EO'RGE AID TOOL COMPANY, OF VERONA, PHWNSYLVANIA, ACORPORATION OF PENN- BYLVANIA.

Application filed January 10, 1925; Serial No. 1,552.

e To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMANUEL Woonmcs, a citizen of the United States,residing at Oakmont, county of Allegheny, and State of Pennsylvania,have invented a new and useful Improvement in- Splice Bars, of i whichthe following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The present invention relates broadly to. metal working, and moreparticularlyto the problem either of making splice bars of the characteradaptedto be utilized with rail.- way rails, or of reclaiming splicebars of this type after they have served a predetermined period ofusefulness.

At the present time it is customary in the art to which the presentinvention relates to apply splice bars in pairs to the joints be i tweenrail ends to tie the rails together, the

bars being applied on opposite sides of the rail joints and bolted tothe rail ends. Due to the pounding action of the rails on the. splicebars underthe action of the rollingstock, the upper faces of the splicebars which engage under the rail heads are gradually hammered down orworn away. To compensate for this; the boltsare taken up at intervals todraw the splice bars inward- 1y. This operation is repeated from time totime until all of the play is taken up and the splice bars engage thewebs of the jrails. When this occurs, further adjustment to SPLICE BAR.

insured.

essence for the reason that the hammering action which destroys thesplice bars also effects a hammerin down. and wearing away of the railens, thereby leaving spaces between the under side of the rail heads and vthe tops of the splice bars. In order to obviate this, it has heretoforebeen considered advantageous to crop the ends of the rails,-

to thereby. eliminate the worn portions.

The cropping, however, has been a laborious operate either with new orworn rails, and

so constructed that not only is the necessity for croppm obviated, butthat a greater length 0 li e of the rails and splice bars is It is afurther object of the present invention to provide a splice bar eitheras a new article of'maniifacture, or as a reclaimed article, of suchCOBStIllOtlOTI that highly eflicient rail engagin surfaces are provided.

In the accompdnyin' drawin there is shown, for purposes; 0 illustration.only, a

preferred embodime'ntgof the present inventiore and a method of 1 rryingout the same, it not de ne the limits of my invention as changes in theconstructiomand operation compensate for wear is not possible, andthe-disclosed therein may be made without departing eitherfrom thespirit of the invenperiod f usefulness of the splice bars being over, itis necessary to replacethe same.

Heretofore such worn splice bars have customarily either been discarded,or they have been planed down in a milling machine jected to such-heavyusage, and consequen ly there has not been an outlet for all of the.splice bars rendered unfit for usage on the main lines. This hasrepresented 'a' considerable loss each year, not only inthe scrap-;

ping of the bars, but in the handling thereof.

I have also found by careful observation that new splice? bars,irrespective of the. method in accordance with which they aremanufactured, are not adapted to most efiectively cooperate witholdrails. This is true tion or the sco In the drawings of my broaderclaims.

Figure 1 is a' side elevation illustratin my' improved splice bar inposition at a rai understood" t t the drawings do but showingslherelative positions of the rail 1 and splice rs after the latterhave beenworn tosuch an extent that they engage-the web-ofthe rail;

In illustrating thepresent invention, I

have shown a splice bar of the so-calledcontinuous type, it-heingunderstood,,how- Y 'splice bars of any particular construction. 7

ever, that the invention is not limitedto the present drawings being forpurposes of illustration only. [his ,type of splice bar is furthermoreshown for the reason that there are at the present time hundreds ofthousads of pairs of such bars which are now considered as scrap, forthe reason that they have completed their period of \useful- 'ness' Theimproved splice 'bar whethef as originally constructed or as renewedafter a period of use comprises a slotted base 2 adapted to embrace oneedge portion of. the

verse section a pair of the'improved splice bars in position on a rail,the inner side faces 6 of the splice' bars being spaced from 'splicebars and the rail heads.

the web of the rail. Under the action of' the rolling stock, however,the upper faces ofthe splice bars and the underside of the headsot'therails are worn away, there by providing room for play between the Toovercome this play, and compensate for the decrease in the eifectiveheight of the splice bars,'the bolts 9 are tightened from time to timeto draw the splice bars inwardly, thereby causing the inclined upperfaces 5-to again come into, snugengagement with the under side 10 of therail heads, thereby Thereafter,

maintaining'the upper surfaces of the rails flush at the joint and inline with the main rail body at all times.

When the faces 5 and 10 have become worn away or hammered down to suchan extent that the tightening of the bolts 9 causes the splice bar headsto bear against the webs of the rails, as indicated in Figure 3, furtheradjustment ofthe splice bars to compensate for wear is'not possible. Thesplice bars have then about reached the end of their service and must bereplaced by new ones.

The wearingof the splice bars is accompanied by the wearing of theunder-Surifaces 10 of the ends of the rail heads, so that these railshave slightly recessed portions 10' adjacent to theirends, as shown inPig. 1.

, tions of the rail heads will not bear on the upper edges of the,splice bars and thereforethe rail heads will tend to hammer downadjacentto joints,

and lower edges of the bars will bear respectively "agams't' theunderside of the heads and the upper surfaces of. the flanges of the ifnew splice bars as at present. constructed, areapplied, the recessedpor-- rails. In other words, the end portions do ends of the bar. Whilethe greater height' of the-central portions will prevent-such portionsfrom assing under the heads of the rails when t 10 latter and the splicebars are new, as in the resent-practice the inclinations of the unersides of the railsand the upper surfaces of the bars will permit thebars passing under the rail heads sufii- ,ciently far-to afiordeflicient support. It has been found, however, that there is sullicientresilience in the bars longitudinally to permit vthe end portions beingforced in. towards the'railsa greater distance thanthe middle portionswhen the nuts are screwed onto the bolts. By reason of the stress underwhich the central portions are placed, they will be pressed in as wearoccurs. When the splice bar having this increased height at the centeris utilized with worn rails, there is an immediate compensation for thewear which has-taken place in the rails, thereby making it possible tohold the tread of the rails in alignment at the joints.

It will be understood that by the employ ment of suitably designed dies,splice bars as at present constructed, i. e., of uniform height fortheir entire lengths may be reshaped to embody the novel features shownand described herein. Byactual tests the reclaimed or reformed bars havebeen found tobe betterthanthe original product by reason of the improvedquality of the matterial in the head due to vthe additional The centralportions of 4 working in the dies as well as the trueing of araitengaging surface. In new bars as well as in the reclaimed bars theprovision of the greater height at the center of the bars' gives both alonger period of usefulness by reason of greater adjustability andenables the bars to be used with either new orworn rails. v

I claim:

l. A splice bar-for rails having its endportions of sufficie'nt'heightto bear when applied on the under side of the rail head and the uppersurface of the rail flange and having its central portion substantiallyhigher than the end portions.

2. A splice bar for rails havingits 'endportions of suiiicient heighttobear when applied on the underside of the rail head and theupper'surface of the rail flange and hav-- ing portions intermediate theends inclined upwardly towards the center of the bar.

In testimony whereof I have'hereunto set my hand.

EMANUEL WOODIN GS.

